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Barack Obama pushed the trade deal with Panama which allowed the tax evasion revealed by the "Panama Papers" to flourish. Huffington Post reported in 2011:
"Obama is also urging Congress to approve a trade agreement that would cement a key tax avoidance tactic deployed by some of the richest Americans.
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"Obama urged Congress [to] approve three trade deals, including one with Panama that would permit Americans to easily stash assets in the Central American country, a notorious tax haven for the wealthy and American corporations.
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"Panama does have some of the most stringent bank secrecy laws in the world, making it extremely easy and inexpensive for U.S. citizens to set up offshore corporations and bank accounts. Establishing the corporation and bank account costs less than $2,000, and any money that Americans stash in these entities is not taxed. Bank secrecy laws and extremely lax corporate registration standards make it very difficult for the Internal Revenue Service to track transactions transferring funds to these Panamanian destinations from the United States. Small surprise, then, that Panama is home to nearly 400,000 offshore corporations, more than any other nation except Hong Kong.
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"The trade agreement with Panama would effectively bar the U.S. from cracking down on this activity. The U.S. would not be allowed to treat Panamanian financial services transactions differently from transactions in nations that are not tax havens. It would also be unable to pursue some standard anti-money laundering techniques in Panama. Combating tax haven abuse in Panama would be a violation of the trade agreement, exposing the U.S. to fines from international authorities.
"'It directly undermines Obama's putative domestic agenda of job creation, cracking down on tax havens and collecting revenue from tax-dodging corporations,' said Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. 'The [free trade agreement] would forbid future use of existing policy tools to combat financial crime."
Hillary Clinton did as well ...
International Business Times reports:
"Soon after taking office in 2009, Obama and his secretary of state [Hillary Clinton] -- who is currently the Democratic presidential front-runner -- began pushing for the passage of stalled free trade agreements (FTAs) with Panama, Colombia and South Korea that opponents said would make it more difficult to crack down on Panama's very low income tax rate, banking secrecy laws and history of noncooperation with foreign partners.
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"Upon Congress ratifying the pact, Clinton issued a statement lauding the agreement, saying it ... 'will make it easier for American companies to sell their products.' She added: 'The Obama administration is constantly working to deepen our economic engagement throughout the world, and these agreements are an example of that commitment.'"
But Bernie Sanders opposed the tax evasion deal with Panama, and prophetically warned in 2011:
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